Looking for Richard e Shakespeare in love : Shakespeare pela ótica do cinema hollywoodiano pós-modernista

A presente dissertação aborda o diálogo intertextual interdisciplinar que os filmes cinematográficos Shakespeare in Love (John Madden, 1998) e Looking for Richard (Al Pacino,1996) estabelecem em relação ao conjunto da obra de William Shakespeare. A análise dos filmes demonstra que, tanto pela estruturação de suas narrativas quanto por suas posturas frente ao legado cultural shakespeariano e seu papel na cultura de massa contemporânea, tais filmes configuram-se como obras de arte pós-modernistas. Tendo por base abordagens culturais abrangentes do fenômeno pós-modernista, concluimos que Shakespeare in Love e Looking for Richard propõem um redimensionamento da obra canônica de Shakespeare e de seu legado cultural na contemporaneidade, recuperando seu forte apelo popular através do cinema de entretenimento hollywoodiano.

Sexual blinging of women : Alice Walker's african character tashi and issue of female genital cutting

This thesis provides a reading of the different forms of representation that can be attributed to the character Tashi, the protagonist of the novel Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), written by the African American writer Alice Walker. Before this work Tashi had already appeared in two previous novels by Walker, first, in The Color Purple (1982) and then, as a mention, in The Temple of My Familiar (1989). With Tashi, the author introduces the issue of female circumcision, a ritual Tashi submits herself to at the beginning of her adult life. The focus of observation lies in the ways in which the author’s anger is transformed into a means of creative representation. Walker uses her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy openly as a political instrument so that the expression “female mutilation” (term used by the author) receives ample attention from the media and critics in general. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate to what extent Walker’s social engagement contributes to the development of her work and to what extent it undermines it. For the analysis of the different issues related to “female genital cutting”, the term I use in this thesis, the works of feminist critics and writers such as Ellen Gruenbaum, Lightfoot-Klein, Nancy Hartsock, Linda Nicholson, Efrat Tseëlon and the Egyptian writer and doctor Nawal El Saadawi will be consulted. I hope that this thesis can contribute as an observation about Alice Walker’s use of her social engagement in the creation of her fictional world.